Change In Life Of Pi

In the story, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the main character, Pi, is changed as a person after he must kill a flying fish in order to survive. Through this, Pi’s religious morals changed as well as his personality overall. When Pi first tries to kill the fish he continues to hesitate, and has a hard time committing the action to take the life away. As stated in an excerpt, “Several times I started bringing the hatchet down, but I couldn’t complete the action…A lifetime of peaceful vegetarianism stood between me and the willful beheading of a fish” (Martel 87). Throughout the beginning of Pi’s life, he is told not to kill any animal due to his vegetarian values. However, in this scenario, he has no choice. Through this, Pi transforms into a

This idea may be based off of the fact that he had to kill the fish in order to survive, and to keep Richard Parker (the tiger) alive as well. Following the time of killing the flying fish (which Pi uses as bait) he catches a dorado, and explains that the food he is catching is for Richard Parker. Pi states, “It was for Richard Parker and he would have dispatched it with expert ease” (Martel 89). Through a religious aspect, it can be seen that Pi did not necessarily change is values, but had to go against his morals because of the specific scenario of survival. This may be true; however, Pi directly mentions that he is changed from the time of killing the flying fish to taking the life away from a beautiful dorado. Pi indicates, “You may be astonished that in such a short period of time I could go from weeping over the muffled killing of a flying fish to gleefully bludgeoning to death a dorado” (Martel 89). This clearly states that Pi is a dynamic character through this time span. At first, his religious values made it hard for him to kill the flying fish, but when the dorado was killed “gleefully” he goes against his religious values. Conclusively, people may think that Pi does not change as a person, but evidently, he is looked upon as a dynamic character after the actions of killing the flying